This book has lots of people in it. There’s Mike Fink, the riverman. He worked on a barge that delivered whiskey to the fort where William Henry Harrison rules. WHH wants to be governor of Wobbish when it eventually becomes a state. He is vile, horrible, orders people murdered and such. His wife and son die in a fire that is set by a spark named Hooch, who he has Mike Fink murder. He also presides over the Tippy-Canoe massacre. Old Hickory, Andrew Jackson, is in this one, too. The Red Prophet is Alvin’s Shining Man, Lolla-Wossiky, who now goes by the name Tenska Tawa. He has built a city of Indians. He is Tecumpseh’s brother. He can walk on water and even takes Alvin up in a tornado, but that happens after Alvin and Measure get kidnapped. WHH hired some Chock Taws to kidnap the boys and kill them. They kidnapped the boys when they were on their way back to the Hatrack so that Alvin can be apprentice to the blacksmith there. The kidnappers made it appear that Tenska Tawa and Tecumpseh did it. Tecumpseh shows up and rescues them. Tenska Tawa has told him he must save them. He does and then he sends Measure home, but not before Harrison’s cannons and all the townsmen of Vigor’s Church (except Armor-of-God), massacre the people of Prophetstown. The Prophet leaves with the survivors to go west of the Mizzippy. He puts a curse on the men of Vigor’s Church. They must tell of their part in the massacre to every stranger they meet or their hands will turn bloody. Alvin travels with Tecumpseh for a year and learns to live like a Red. Tecumpseh travels around, telling about Tippy-Canoe and gathering up a Red Army to meet in Detroit to join with the French against the Whites. La Fayette stabs Napoleon in the back (for the cause of liberty for France) and so Napoleon is relieved of his command at Detroit and shipped back to France. The Reds and French lose to Andrew Jackson. Alvin and Tecumpseh part ways. Tecumpseh goes and finds his brother. Alvin goes home. Tecumpseh lived a double life. He spoke English like an Englishman and had the name Issac and was married to a weaver named Becca. Very interesting alternative history.

Three and a half. More action and a native American perspective is added, but Alvin's character becomes a foil for the alternative history lesson. And sometimes it seemed like a history lesson.

I adored Seventh Son, but so far, Red Prophet has yet to catch my attention. It's likely that the horrific stereotyping and bigotry oozing from every page has something to do with it.

Après ma lecture du 1er tome de la saga Les chroniques d’Alvin le faiseur, je viens de lire Le prophète rouge d’Orson Scott Card, publié chez L’Atalante et au final j’en ressors assez mitigée.

Dans ce 2ème tome, nous replongeons dans les années 1800 avec les pionniers d’Amérique où la magie existe sous la forme de sortilèges et de pouvoirs étranges. Après avoir découvert l’histoire et les membres de la famille d’Alvin junior, et de ses particularités, ce tome s’oriente plus sur l’histoire des amérindiens.

Nous suivons principalement deux frères indiens qui ont des visions très différentes des choses et de ce qu’ils doivent faire face aux hommes blancs, qui envahissent de plus en plus leur territoire en détruisant la terre sur leur passage. L’un veut combattre les blancs pour les forcer à retourner d’où ils viennent, loin de l’Amérique, tandis que de l’autre veut séparer le territoire : à ‘est les blancs et à l’ouest les rouges.

Et alors que la guerre se rapproche entre les deux peuples, Alvin va faire son apparition et va se retrouver mêlé au conflit, d’une manière qu’il n’aurait jamais soupçonné.

Dans l’ensemble, j’ai bien aimé l’histoire même si, étonnamment, des fois je n’ai pas trop adhéré au côté magique des choses. Nous rencontrons de nombreux personnages intéressants (et parfois très étonnants) et nous retrouvons également Alvin, sa famille et Mot-pour-mot. Je dois avouer que j’ai été un peu étonnée au début de l’absence d’Alvin, il faut attendre pas mal de temps avant qu’il entre vraiment dans l’histoire, mais ça s’explique ^^

L’histoire est très rythmée, l’intrigue est bien menée et les complots des différents camps tiennent bien en haleine. Le côté historique est très développé dans ce tome et au final c’est ce qu’il m’a plus plut, comparé au côté magique car j’ai vraiment eu du mal à adhérer aux côté magique des indiens, même si c’était original.

Au final, ce 2ème était intéressant mais il m’a manqué un petit quelque chose pour vraiment aimé ma lecture. Je lirais tout de même le 3ème tome afin de voir ce qu’il va se passer par la suite et me faire une idée plus claire de cette saga.

Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card is the sequel to Card’s 1987 novel Seventh Son.

Like Ender's Shadow, the changed perspective sequel to Card’s masterpiece Ender's Game, Card demonstrates his great ability to tell a story from more than one vantage and can even expand this re-telling into another book.

Red Prophet continues the alternate American history began in Seventh Son and this time largely from the viewpoint of Lalawasike, known to most readers of American history as The Prophet, brother to Tecumseh. William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, Lafayette and even Napoleon also figure into the revisionist tale of the time before the battle of Tippecanoe.

As good a job as Card does at characterization, really very good in fact, building complexities into characters that at first seemed flat, the best part of this book, and likely the high water marks of the series, remains Card’s wonderfully imaginative alternate history of America. This vision provides a soapbox upon which Card shares with his readers what he thinks is best in the heart of America and how things could be better.

Just like in Seventh Son, like him or hate him, at the end of the day Card tells a good story and Red Prophet is fun to read.

Desconozco gran parte de la historia de Estados Unidos, así que me tocó buscar algo de información para tener mejor contexto y enterarme que lo relatado en la novela es una especie de ficción idealizada sobre lo que pudo haber sido en la lucha de Ta - Kumsaw y su gente (nativos pieles rojas americanos) en la defensa de sus territorios ante el naciente pueblo norteamericano que por un lado exigía su libertad y por otro recrudecía su dominio sobre los reales pobladores de ese territorio. De esas disyuntivas históricas que aún hoy complican la vida de unos y otros.

Lo cierto en es que en la novela, Ta – Kumsaw, quien recibió formación blanca, retoma sus raíces en defensa de los suyos ejerciendo como líder político, y junto a su hermano Tenskwa – Tawa, el cual asume el papel de líder espiritual, se convierte en el profeta. Ambos buscan unir a su gente y cada uno a su manera luchan contra las intenciones de Harrison. Es ahí donde nuestro protagonista, el pequeño Alvin entra en escena y aprende también que sus poderes están relacionados con la música verde de la tierra y es capaz de desarrollar en gran medida el uso a voluntad de esos dones, aunque no será suficiente para salvar a los pieles rojas de su amargo destino.

En general ha sido un relato interesante, siempre lleno de magia y de mucha historia, pero me he perdido en muchos pasajes. Creo que hasta acá llego con la saga, no me siento en condiciones de continuar con ella.

Best book I've read all year, as good if not better than the first. Had me looking up American history I hadn't studied since grade school.

Story: This is the second book in the Alvin Maker series, and I recommend that you read the first book before this one. Alvin doesn't even show up until about 90 pages in and those first 90 pages introduce our other leading characters, Ta-Kumsaw and Lolla-Wossiky. There's a lot of trouble going on in America involving William Henry Harrison, the whites and the Reds, northeners, southerners and others. A storm is brewing, politically and territoritally and young Alvin Maker has a big role to play in it.

Language: Orson Scott Card uses a lot of words in his version of America that will be easily understood by readers with some knowledge of America (ex. Mizzipy for Mississippi). This use of vocabulary draws the reader into this alternate history yet keeps the reader familiar and easily part of the world. Other than that, the language is very clear cut and easy to follow. Language plays a key role in the story and characters and Orson Scott Card writes expertly.

PACE: Fast. There is constant action, especially in the latter half of the book, and the reader is swept along with the characters from each action to the next. Some parts of the book occur concurrently among different characters so the reader follows the adventure in many ways.

Frame: Ethereal and spiritual. The book is titled Red Prophet and that should give away the tone of the novel. American Indian and spirituality. The prophet theme is key and runs across the whole book in many forms. There is violence in this book, so there are dar moments, but there are also many light moments, as in the first Alvin Maker novel.

Note: If you are not familiar with US history, do not go looking up about the events or characters in the book until you have finished reading. Although this is an alternate history, some parts in real history might be considered spoilers for the events that occur in this book.

Fantastic book, way better than I expected and I am an even bigger Alvin Maker fan than I was after reading the first book.

It's a shame that there are so few good alternate history books that I have been able to find. This one, Red Prophet is a prime example. The second part in the popular Alvin Maker series, it explores an alternate early 19th century America in which Oliver Cromwell's Puritanical revolution succeeded in the long run and frontier folk magic works.
So far, so good. I really enjoy the historical details that went into this work, the stories that get slipped in about Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, etc. And in Red Prophet, we get to meet and see from the viewpoints of a large cast of historical characters: Lafayette, Napoleon, Tecumseh, his brother the Prophet, William Henry Harrison, Andrew Jackson, and Mike Fink all turn up.
This really should have been a good book. Unfortunately, it is a case study in how NOT to write about Native Americans. In this world Native Americans: have a connection to the earth that white people don't have, giving them almost magical powers of stealth, evasion, and tracking; cannot adopt any "white" customs (wearing their clothes, using their rifles, drinking their "likker", learning to read... farming...) without losing this connection; don't hunt, they just ask animals if it's a good time to die, and the animals that say "yes" get eaten; only seem to come up with names that require hyphens, z's, or k's (Ta-Kumsaw, Cre-Ek, Chok-Taw, Cherriky, Mizzipy, Mizogan, Tippy-Canoe); and can't share the land with white people without becoming "white" in the process, because white people kill the spirit of the land, just by being dumb white people who chop down trees and kill animals and quarry stones and build churches and roads and houses and bridges and...
Anything interesting about the story is overshadowed by this painful over-romanticization of the First Peoples. And really, there's little that is interesting, since about five years of alternate American history are squeezed into only about 300 pages.

The complexity and depth of the story was taken to a deeper level in book 2 and now I feel more interest in learning about the real history of what happened at Tippecanoe. I love the world Card has created and how it helps me think about history, religion, and "the other" in a new ways. Excited for the next book!

Wow this story is just getting better! It is incredibly interesting to see the way the 'reds' did things, so different than the way that the 'whites' did... So much pain and suffering, all because of a few. I am very curious about the 'visitor', and the little hints that the book leaves behind. I absolutely adore Taleswapper more and more. Alvin is just adorable and I'm happy to see his evolution as a character. One more awesome thing is how it inserts historical characters and contexts, and mixes them up with the wonders of knacks, hexes, and the land sense. I wish I had the land sense, it seems beautiful! I'm super excited for the next book! o/

[3.6 stars, I really liked it, yet likely won't read again]

Orson Scott Card does a fantastic job of weaving historical characters into an alternate universe where magic is real, taking their basic character and mapping their alternate well. The twisty plot and well written storyline are satisfying. Yet while doing this, he resurrects the nobel savage trope (I suppose I'm more Hobbesian in inclination), and posits the idea that magic is mostly good and technology is always bad, and that white man is always a destroyer. It almost seems as if the Traveling People (from Wheel of Time) shaped the world like one can in a dream.

A rich and fascinating take on a re-invented American history steeped in Indian lore and filled w/magic.